I am a painter, writer, and filmmaker. I have been living in Brooklyn for about 25 years, and now also spend part of my time in the Northeast Kingdom in Vermont. I have exhibited my work since 1990 in venues such as the Thomas Erben Gallery and Mayson Gallery in New York City, the 1708 Gallery in Richmond, Virginia, the Alice K. Rogers Gallery of St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, and BCB Art in Hudson, New York. I studied film and art history at UMBC in Baltimore, earned an MA in Liberal Education from the Graduate Institute of St. John's College in Santa Fe, and an MFA from the Tyler School of Art in Rome and Philadelphia.
QUICK LINKS
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1 August (Katalogos 2618), 2011, oil acrylic sand and metallic paint on canvas over panel, 60 x 60 inches.
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
On a frigid winter evening, a small child in the yard, I leaned back and stared into the black plum depths of the night sky. The air—cold on my face, combined with the chill of the infinite—was electric, frightening, and irresistible. I felt a part of something boundless and mystifying.
Working in my studio, I recall the sensation of that moment as the quality I would like to awaken in the people who view my work. I conceive my paintings as catalysts that put viewers in touch with something unsayable by other means, and empty them into a delta of their own thought and feeling.
To this end, I paint abstractly because abstract forms inhabit the spaces between words, and the abstract field constitutes a place of limitless potential. When creating paintings, I use a personal vocabulary comprised of forms that reference the biomorphic, combined with fields of color made with the natural flow of liquid paint, and marks that strive to connect with each viewer’s human and physical empathy.
When painting, I tend to work in series, using each new group of paintings to explore the contours of a particular visual region or conceptual space. Each painting is a record of what I find, a node where the threads of our bodily and interior experiences are joined. -
CURRICULUM VITAE
EXHIBITIONS
Solo and two-person exhibitions
2009 BCB Art, Hudson, New York.
2009 1708 Gallery, Richmond, Virginia.
2000 Antigone, Alice K. Rogers Gallery of St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota.Selected group exhibitions
2019 Space 776, Brooklyn, New York.
2018 Small Works, Cluster Gallery, Brooklyn, New York.
2018 Space 776, Brooklyn, New York.
2018 Falling Forward, LIC Arts Open Gallery, Queens, New York.
2018 Summer Exhibition, LIC Arts Open Gallery, Queens, New York.
2016 The Persistent Nature of Urgency, curated by Lowell Boyers and Jeff Quinn, Mayson Gallery, New York, New York.
2011 Close Encounters, Gallery 51, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams, Massachusetts.
2010 On the Grid, Camel Art Space, Brooklyn, New York.
2010 BCB Art, Hudson, New York.
2009 John Finneran, Leeza Meksin, Christopher Quirk, Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, New York.
2009 BCB Art, Hudson, New York.
2008 Painting: Process, Walsh Gallery, curated by Jacqueline Bekiaris and Maria Silvestri, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey.
2005 NurtureArt, Spike Gallery, New York, New York.
2001 Inside/Out, Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
1998 Emily Lowe Gallery, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.
1997 St. John’s University Gallery, Queens, New York.
1994 Temple Gallery, Temple University, Rome, Italy.
1993 Around the Coyote Gallery, Chicago, Illinois.
1993 No Palace Studio, Chicago, Illinois.
1990 Armory for the Arts Invitational, Santa Fe, New Mexico.Awards, residencies, fellowships
2009 Grant, Artists’ Fellowship, Inc., New York, New York.
2002 Grant, Kittredge Fund, Augusta, Maine.
2001 Artist in Residence, Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
2001 Grant, Change, Inc., New York, New York.
2001 Grant, Artists’ Fellowship, Inc., New York, New York.
1994-96 Teaching Fellowship, Tyler School of Art, Rome, Italy and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Visiting artist lectures, projects
2009 Visiting Artist Lecture, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.
2009 Artist’s Talk, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, Virginia.
2006 Visiting Artist Project, IS 71, Brooklyn, New York.
2001 Visiting Artist Lecture, Baltimore School for the Arts, Baltimore, Maryland.
2000 Visiting Artist Lecture, St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota.
1996 Visiting Artist Lecture, Temple University, Rome, Italy.Teaching
1997-2000 Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.
1997-1998 Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art, St. John's University, Queens, New York.Bibliography
Paul Behnke, “In Process with Christopher Quirk,” Structure and Imagery (blog), November 2013.
Tim Singleton, “Guiding Flow: The Paintings of Christopher Quirk,” Little Patuxent Review, Winter 2011.
Laura Shovan, “Reflections on Water,” Little Patuxent Review (blog), 25 January 2011.
Lucio Pozzi, “Letter from New York”, Il Giornale dell’Arte, N. 290, September 2009.
Tim Bowring, interview, WRIR radio, Richmond, Virginia, 16 January 2009.
Bird Cox, "See It/Mark Making," Brick Weekly, Richmond, Virginia, 4 January 2009.
Jacqueline Bekiaris and Maria Silvestri, Painting: Process, exhibition catalogue, Seton Hall University, January 2008.
Nicole Ruhn, “Art Exhibit at SJU Galleries,” CSB/SJU Community, Collegeville, Minnesota, December 2000.Education
MFA, Painting, Tyler School of Art, Rome, Italy and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.MA, Liberal Education, Graduate Institute of St. John’s College, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Undergraduate studies, film production, film theory and art history, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland.
